Virat outplays Shah Rukh, tops brand value list with $144 mn

Deepika 3rd; Varun Dhawan, P V Sindhu enter Duff and Phelps brand value list

 

Virat Kohli has overtaken Shah Rukh Khan as the most valuable celebrity in the country, according to the latest Duff and Phelps brands report.

Kohli’s brand value was $144 million, Shah Rukh Khan’s $106 million and Deepika Padukone’s $93 million — the top three on the list. Padukone managed to hold her spot from last year, while Kohli and Khan swapped places in the pecking order.

“For the first time since we began publishing our rankings, Shah Rukh Khan has slipped from the top ranking and been replaced by Virat Kohli,” said Varun Gupta, managing director and region leader-India, Japan and Southeast Asia of Duff & Phelps. “Kohli is now the first choice of brands to engage and attract consumers, fuelled by his extraordinary on-field performances and off-field charisma.”

This year also saw two new entrants in the top-15 celebrity brands – Varun Dhawan at 10 (brand value $32 million) and P V Sindhu at 15 (brand value $15 million).

Ten of the top-15 celebrity brands were millennials.

The brand value of the top 15 celebrities together was $712 million.

“In addition to Kohli, other young celebrities such as Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and badminton champion P V Sindhu have either risen in the rankings or entered our top-15 list, backed by note-worthy performances in their respective fields and strong endorsement signings over the last year,” Gupta added.

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Shops, hotels in Maharashtra can remain open 24X7; bars, discos can’t

The government notified the amended Act on Tuesday which covers hotels, malls and restaurants

 

Shops, hotels and malls can now remain open round-the-clock through the week in Maharashtra, according to a new law, which will not apply to bars, pubs, liquor shops and discotheques, the state’s Labour Minister Sambhaji Nilangekar-Patil said.

The government notified the amended Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Service Condition) Act, 2017, on Tuesday which covers hotels, malls and restaurants.

The bill was passed by the Maharashtra legislature during its last session.

The new law excludes bars, pubs, wine shops and discos which have to open and close at a particular time.

“The amendment now allows all shops to remain open in three shifts. It can remain open for 24 hours on all seven days. It is, however, mandatory to give one-day leave to their employees every week,” Nilangekar-Patil said.

The amended law says smaller establishments would not require licences to run their operations but will have to register online with the authority concerned.

It exempts small and medium-sized establishments, which have less than 10 workers, or employees working from home, or which are run as online businesses, from registering for a licence.

This relaxation is expected to benefit about 22 lakh establishments, the minister said.

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RBI may be holding back Rs 2,000 notes or stopped printing them

High-value notes worth Rs 2.46 lakh cr not released, says the report

 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may either be holding back Rs 2,000 notes or could have stopped printing high denomination currency, says a SBI Research report.

Juxtaposing the data presented in the Lok Sabha recently with the one provided by RBI in its Annual Report earlier, the SBI Ecoflash report said today, “we observe” that the value of small denomination currency in circulation up to March 2017 was Rs 3,501 billion.

This implies that the value of high denomination notes was equivalent to Rs 13,324 billion as on December 8, after netting out the small denomination notes from the currency in circulation on that day, it said.

The report further said that as per the Ministry of Finance in the Lok Sabha recently, the RBI has printed 16,957 million pieces of Rs 500 notes and 3,654 million pieces of Rs 2,000 notes as on December 8. The total value of such notes translates into Rs 15,787 billion.

“This means that the residual amount of high currency notes (Rs 15,787 billion Rs 13,324 billion) of Rs 2,463 billion may have been printed by the RBI but not supplied in the market,” said the report authored Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, SBI.

Interestingly, the report added, “it is safe to assume” that Rs 2,463 billion may be on the lower side as the RBI must have printed notes of small denomination in the interregnum (Rs 50 and Rs 200).

“As a logical corollary, as 2000 denomination currency led to challenges in transactions, it thus indeed seems that RBI may have either consciously stopped printing the 2000 denomination notes/or printing in smaller numbers after initially it was printed in ample amount to normalise the liquidity situation,” said Ecoflash.

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Star Wars lessons: Rebellion is reborn, will Rahul Gandhi be the last jedi?

Is Star Wars a lesson the Congress is ready to absorb?

 

The channel – which cannot be named but rhymes with How Now Brown Cow – has given us the mother of all exposés – Rahul Gandhi watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi at a cinema in New Delhi, a mere six hours after his party’s loss in the Gujarat elections. A mere six hours later! Is there no shame?

What could be more damning proof of his political dilettantism, wonders the channel in a lather of righteous indignation. Its 24×7 hard-working hashtag generators whose salary and promotion depend on how outrageous they can come up with a stinger far more lethal than any lightsaber – #AreYouSeriousRahul.

The unpatriotic might say #AreYouSeriousTimesNow? But they do not understand the blood, sweat, and tears the media expends to bring us every episode of Rahul Gandhi, the Phantom Menace who hides away sometimes in undisclosed foreign locations and sometimes in movie theatres in Delhi.

That the newly anointed president of the Congress chose to do something as frivolous as see a film at this critical juncture is bad enough. That he chose a videshi film just makes it worse. What was wrong with Fukrey Returns?

But wait, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. There is a hidden message here in Rahul Gandhi’s movie choice that the BJP ignores at its own peril. The young leader is learning and as he girds his loins to bring back the Congress from the brink of oblivion, what can be a more appropriate film to watch than The Last Jedi?

This is a film about a rag tag group of Resistance fighters, their backs to the wall, being pummeled in battle after battle by the First Order whose dreadnoughts are gobbling up the galaxy. There is a tired Princess, battle-weary, trying to rally her fading troops together and keep the morale up, even from her hospital bed.

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NYC subway attack: Bangladeshi bomber arrested after blast; Chicago panics

Officials said that Ullah was from Bangladesh and had lived in the city for seven years.

Business Standard : A Bangladeshi-origin man was arrested on Monday after a “low-tech” suicide bomb he was was allegedly wearing went off injuring him and three others at the city’s transportation hub at the start of the rush hour.

Police Commissioner James O’Neil told reporters that 27-year-old Akayed Ullah had on an “improvised low-tech explosive device attached to his body,” which he “intentionally detonated”.

Officials said that Ullah was from Bangladesh and had lived in the city for seven years.

Ullah was taken to a hospital and has made statements to police, O’Neil said, but refused to disclose what he had said.

Asked if the suspect had connections to the Islamic State, the Commissioner refused comment saying the investigations were at a preliminary stage.

O’Neil said that that the joint task force of city and federal officials was carrying out a “thorough background investigation” of Ullah who lived in Brooklyn.

He said three other people sustained minor injuries.

John Miller, the head of police counter-terrorism, said that the device was a pipe bomb attached to Ullah’s body with velcro.

The bomb went off in a passageway connecting trains in the Times Square underground metro station adjoining the interstate bus terminal in Manhattan, disrupting the morning commute for thousands of people working in the city.

The Port Authority Bus Terminal was evacuated and shut down as scores buses headed to the city from suburbs and other states, but opened after police scoured it for suspicious objects. The Times Square subway station, the city’s busiest, was closed for a while.

Rahul Gandhi elected Congress president: Can he challenge PM Modi?

If he succeeds, he will fashion the Congress party into a viable challenger for Narendra Modi’s BJP; if he fails, India will be staring at a virtual one party democracy for the foreseeable future.

Business Standard : The oldest running joke in India finally has a denouement: will Rahul Gandhi ever accept the mantle of the Congress presidentship? For his dwindling crowd of supporters, Gandhi’s reluctance was an expression of a dynast uncomfortable with his privilege; for his detractors, it merely embodied his princely refusal to accept responsibility. But now the dust finally settles and Rahul Gandhi is the new official leader of India’s oldest political party and its significant heritage.

But even a cursory perusal of the political landscape would give Rahul Gandhi pause. Narendra Modi remains popular despite policy missteps like demonetsation and the rocky roll-out of goods and services tax (GST).

Though Congress appears to have recovered from its post 2014 stupor, it is currently in power in only two major states. Recent polls in Gujarat may give the Congress party some hope but the state will probably be a bridge too far.

Karnataka follows in 2018 which the Congress simply cannot afford to lose. The Congress is still playing electoral defense as India approaches the end of Modi’s first term. And that has to change quickly if it is to harbor any hopes of surviving the Modi era. There are three principal challenges facing the new Congress president as he prepares for the crucial 2019 elections.

First—-and this may appear flippant—-to be taken seriously. In the last few years, Rahul Gandhi has been reduced to an epithet; the most charitable reading suggests that he is a reluctant politician forced to carry forward the family legacy. Congress sympathizers would no doubt point out that Gandhi has lately discovered his voice—he has coined some catchy slogans, and most importantly, is consistently engaged in politics.

No condom ads from 6 AM to 10 PM; they’re indecent for kids, says Modi govt

it said such advertisements may be telecast between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to avoid exposure of such material to children.

Business Standard : The government on Monday strictly asked TV channels not to air advertisements selling and promoting condoms because these are “indecent especially for children” and can create “unhealthy practices” among them.

“It has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that some channels carry advertisements of condoms repeatedly which are alleged to be indecent especially for children,” an advisory from the ministry said.

The advisory invoked Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, banning an “advertisement which endangers the safety of children or create in them any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner”.

“In view of the above, all TV channels are hereby advised not to telecast the advertisements of condoms which are for a particular age group and could be indecent/inappropriate for viewing by children. Indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements.

It said such advertisements may be telecast between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to avoid exposure of such material to children.

“Any failure will attract action as per provisions of the rules,” said the advisory.

The missive comes after the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) requested the ministry earlier this month to take a call on such ads and their telecast timing.

In September, a condom advertisement featuring Sunny Leone drew protests from a Surat-based group. The ad, which was displayed on hoardings across the city and carried a message in Gujarati “play but with love” was shared on social media by people. City-based group Hindu Yuva Vahini staged a protest at one of the locations where the hoarding was displayed.

First ever seaplane to land on Sabarmati river today, Modi 1st passenger

Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani said this is for the first time in the history of the country that a sea-plane will land on a water body.

Business Standard : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday travel in a sea-plane from Sabarmati river in the city to Dharoi dam in Mehsana district, the first-ever flight by such a craft in the country.His return journey would also be by the same sea-plane.

“Tomorrow for the first time in the history of the country a sea-plane will land on the Sabarmati river. I will go to Ambaji in the sea-plane after landing in Dharoi dam and come back,” Modi announced at a poll rally here.

“Our party had planned my road show tomorrow. However, the administration has not given permission and I had time so I decided to go to Ambaji in the sea-plane,” Modi said.

“We cannot have airports everywhere, so our government has planned to have these sea-planes,” Modi said.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said this is for the first time in the history of the country that a sea-plane will land on a water body and that will be the Sabarmati river.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel in the plane from here to Dharoi. He will visit Ambaji temple and come back from Dharoi to Sabarmati in the same plane,” Rupani said.

Virat, Anushka married in Italy! How star brands light up the catwalk

As the fashion market booms, the band of celebrity endorsers with their own apparel brands is expanding

 

Business Standard is republishing this 11/12/2017 article in light of Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma tying the knot on Monday in a private ceremony, reportedly at a countryside resort named Borgo Finocchieto in Italy.

They used to be the names big fashion brands turned to when it was time to launch a new style or jazz up an old line. Anushka Sharma, Sonam Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor and such others are the faces that have launched a plethora of local and international labels. But now these stars are helming their independent fashion lines and hoping to leverage their mass appeal to build their own businesses. Will this trend pick up steam through 2018, or will it be just another marketing gimmick that soon loses its fizz?

The trick lies in ensuring that the brands that the stars build reflect their persona. Indranil das Blah, COO and partner at CAA KWAN says, “The clothing/fashion brand and celebrity need to be in sync.” The involvement is more, way more than that between an endorser and brand, he points out. “The very premise of taking ownership is to make it an extension of the celebrity’s own brand. If that does not happen, it could backfire on both, the celebrity and the business venture,” says Das Blah.

Are stars likely to play by these rules when it comes to the brands they own? Not everyone believes that they will be as closely aligned to their labels. The stars are riding their fame, hoping that some of the stardust will rub off on their labels many believe. “It is all about marketing and PR, especially during launch. In this case, the celebrity works as a brand endorser (in addition to being the owner or promoter),” says Amrish Kumar, CEO, the Ritu Kumar company which houses fashion brands created by designer Ritu Kumar. He does not see them involved in the creation process or the business.

Among the first to jump on to the wagon were Hrithik Roshan (sports and athleisure brand HRX) and Salman Khan (Being Human). Soon Virat Kohli (Wrogn), MS Dhoni (Seven), Sonam Kapoor (Rheson alongwith sister Rhea Kapoor) and most recently Anushka Sharma (Nush) followed. And there is cricketer K L Rahul who recently announced his label.

Cyclone Ockhi: 19 dead, 690 people rescued, Navy continues rescue ops

At least 690 people were rescued, while 96 were still missing

 

Business News Today : The Tamil Nadu revenue control room on Sunday stated that the total number of deaths caused due to cyclone Ockhi has reached 19.

The state department also said that at least 690 people were rescued, while 96 were still missing.

It further stated that 63 people were hospitalized, while 74 houses were fully damaged and 1,122 houses were partially damaged.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy continued the search and rescue operations over Southeast Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep and Minicoy (L&M) Islands in the aftermath of cyclonic storm Ockhi.

Ten naval ships, including capital ships like Chennai and Kolkata, were deployed over Southeast Arabian Sea and L&M islands.

In addition, eight aircrafts including long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft P8I were deployed throughout the day.

Amid a political slugfest over Cyclone Ockhi, Union Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan said the IMD issued its first alert to Kerala about heavy rain on November 28 and a warning about the cylcone a day later.

In a statement, Vardhan said on the afternoon of November 29, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued the first bulletin of the cyclone warning and it was conveyed to all district officials in Kerala, the state disaster management authority and the chief secretary.

“In the first bulletin, the information was clearly provided on the possibility of further intensification of the system into a cyclonic storm and associated adverse weather.

Click to Read → Cyclone Ockhi

Babri demolition: How India, Hindus and Muslims have changed in 25 years

India’s economy has changed but social conditions are ripe for resurgence of destructive tendencies

Business News India : The demolition of Babri Masjid and the deadly riots that followed remain a grim reminder in India’s history of volatile politics and the sway it has over the minds of people who are bent on the path of destruction in the name of religious resurrection.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since December 6, 1992, when scores of Hindutva foot soldiers, purportedly egged on by some who would later be the tallest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, went on the rampage to demolish a medieval mosque built by India’s first Mughal emperor, allegedly after dismembering an ancient Hindu temple built in the name of Ram.

In many ways, India was at an economic cross-roads. The per-capita income of Indians was barely ~16,000 (or $245 at current exchange rates) in 1990. When the Babri mosque was pulled down, it fell even further. Added to this abysmal per-capita income was the high inflation rate. In the year the Babri mosque was demolished, the consumer inflation in India touched 14 per cent — a record high in many years.

A year before the demolition, inflation was still at a debilitating 9 per cent. Unemployment levels (data for which in India are highly dubious) stood at 4 per cent. For many Indians, who were just about making ~1,300 (or $20) a month on an average, the economy wasn’t something they could look up to for redemption.

By 1991, 18-year-olds were staring at a future where their incomes and standard of life would be no better than their parents. In 1973, when these young people were born, the per-capita income in India was around ~11,000 ($169 at current rates). From the time they were born to the time they became major, the average earning prospects of Indians rose by a pittance.

At the rates of inflation prevailing in the run-up to the Babri mosque demolition, this unimpressive rise in income would have been negated in just about three years. In effect, a vast majority of India’s population would have been at the same income levels of their parents, maybe even worse.

Click to Read → Babri Demolition 25 Years

At 70, Indian Navy is self-reliant, shipshape

The relatively poor disaster prevention and management infrastructure in most of the countries in the Indian Ocean places a bigger responsibility on the Indian Navy.

 

Business News : Navy Day this year is a good occasion to reflect on its journey and evaluate its progress over the last 70 years. The Indian Navy was an exceedingly small force at the dawn of independence and, while being a product of both its British inheritance and the maritime DNA of our forebears, is largely a post-independence construct.

Despite the many problems that besieged the newly independent country — and by extension its Navy — such as low industrial base, problems on our land borders made it imperative to focus on the army and the air force. But the navy was not short on vision.

As early as 1948, it drew up ambitious plans for a balanced navy that would consist of light aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, cruisers, auxiliaries and associated training and maintenance infrastructure.

Seen against this backdrop, the Indian Navy has grown quietly but steadily. From a force of less than half a dozen sloops to one that has 135 ships and 235 aircraft, most of them state-of-the-art, is indeed an impressive story.

That we operate in all three dimensions: On, above and below water; that most of our ships are indigenously built; and that we are among the few navies to build and operate an array of platforms from aircraft carriers to nuclear submarines add further strength to the narrative. We are now among the world’s leading navies.

But numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Of particular significance is the fact that the navy has built excellent capacities — both human and material — in several disciplines such as hydrography, special operations, integration engineering, doctrine writing, underwater medicine and disaster relief, to name a few.

Click to Read → Indian Navy Day

SBI to hide PAN info on tax refund envelopes after activist raises concerns

Activist Batra wrote to Urjit Patel, alleging that SBI was violating its directions on ‘protection of customer’s information’ by sending crucial information.

Income tax News : State Bank of India will “redesign” its envelopes used to dispatch tax refund cheques of customers to cover their PAN and contact numbers, after an activist raised that the crucial personal information was visible to anyone which may result in misuse, the bank said.

The move comes nearly 16 months after activist Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra raised the issue that the window envelopes used by SBI make it easy for someone to glance through permanent account number (PAN) and contact number of the tax payee and misuse it.

Batra wrote to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel, alleging that SBI was violating its directions on ‘protection of customer’s information’ by sending crucial information about customers in “unsecured envelopes”.

“…this systemic failures by banks must be breaching the personal information of very large numbers of People. I had reported this matter at the highest level in SBI…, but as of now no one has even blinked…and breaching of people’s personal information is continuing,” he wrote to the RBI Governor on November 28.

He said he had been “pleading” with SBI at the highest level for the past 16 months to ensure compliance with RBI directions, but nothing has changed.

Click to Read → Permanent Account Number

Vodafone cashback offer: How to recover Rs 2,200 for your Micromax 4G phone

The special offer would require customers do a recharge of at least Rs 150 per month for 36 months

 

Technology News : Vodafone India on Thursday said it has rolled out cashback offers on four more entry-level Micromax 4G smartphone models, expanding its ongoing association with the handset maker for bundled offerings.

In a statement, Vodafone said that its existing and new customers can purchase the new Micromax smartphones – Bharat 2 Plus, Bharat 3, Bharat 4 and Canvas -1 – and avail cashback offers.

The move is expected to accelerate the adoption of 4G smartphones at the entry level, the statement added.

The special offer would require customers do a recharge of at least Rs 150 per month for 36 months. The company said that users will receive a cash back of Rs 900 at the end of 18 months, and another tranche of Rs 1,300 cashback after another 18 months. This would the total cashback to Rs 2,200.

“The cash back will be credited to their Vodafone M-Pesa wallets,” he added.

Depending on the model, the cashback scheme would bring down the effective price of these models to Rs 1,549 (against price of Rs 3,749) to Rs 3,799 (against original price of Rs 5,999).

“Recently, through our partnership with Micromax we launched the most affordable smartphone in the country at a very attractive price of Rs 999. We are now…bringing four more entry level Micromax 4G smartphones within the special cash back offer,” Avneesh Khosla, Associate Director Consumer Business, Vodafone India said.

Click to Know → Vodafone 4G Smartphone Offer

Who represents real America – Donald Trump or Donald Duck?

The Obama Foundation said Barack Obama will also address a town hall in the national capital

International News : Former US president Barack Obama, who arrived in India on Thursday, addressed the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2017 in New Delhi on Friday.

Along with Obama,  Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, among other luminaries, will discuss India’s rise on the global stage today.

Top highlights of Obama’s speech:

→ “America is famous for Donald Trump and Donald Duck. Which one represents the real America? One of the joys and frustrations about America is that it can be contradictory”, says Barack Obama.

→ Think before you speak, think before you tweet: Obama

→ Barack Obama: Tools on social media platforms can be good or bad. One of the challenges is that technology can influence snap judgements about complex decisions. One of the dangers is that instead of deep analysis and evaluation, the new citizen is skimming the surface… the sizzle and not the steak. Those who watch Fox News and those who read the New York Times occupy a difference space. If I read Foxx News, I wouldn’t vote for me.

→ Barack Obama: India’s movement towards a more modern economy that would lift millions of people out of poverty is important. My job was to see whether the general focus was consistent with sound governance.

→ I like him and I think he has a vision for the country. He is implementing and in many ways modernising certain elements of bureaucracy. But, I was also great friends with Dr Manmohan Singh: Barack Obama on what he thinks of Narendra Modi.

Click to Read → Obama at HTLS speech Highlights

Babri demolition, 25 years on: BJP’s transition from Ram to reform to Ram

BJP’s political narrative has been re-defined after 2014, with a new Hindutva mascot

 

Latest News : The year was 1989. The first general election in which the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) manifesto explicitly talked about reconstructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “By not allowing the rebuilding of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, on the lines of Somnath Mandir built by the Government of India in 1948, it has allowed tensions to rise, and gravely strained social harmony,” the party’s manifesto that year stated.

The year 1989 was in many ways the BJP’s chance at redemption after its predecessor Bharatiya Jana Sangh got its first shot of power along with its socialist allies after Emergency. In 1984, the party had managed to win just two seats in the parliamentary elections. The Congress, riding high on a sympathy wave following Indira Gandhi’s assassination, swept the country by winning 404 out of the 533 seats.

So, BJP’s redemption song in 1989 was going to be the Ram Mandir. With mandir on its mind, the BJP won 85 seats, and so began the party’s push for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, with none other than L K Advani leading the charge with his Rath Yatra.

The VP Singh-led National Front government that tried to throw a spanner in Advani’s Rath Yatra was derailed after the BJP withdrew support following Advani’s arrest at Samastipur in Bihar while galvanising foot soldiers for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The BJP’s egression from the National Front government set the stage for yet another election in 1991. The 1991 elections, widely dubbed as the Mandir vs Mandal elections, was perhaps when the Ram temple pitch in the BJP reached a crescendo.

Yes, 1989 was the year when Mandir found a mention in BJP’s manifesto for the first time. But its decibel still hadn’t reached the feverish pitch that came in 1991. The BJP’s electoral push was largely powered by the ammunition it had against the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

Click to Read → Babri Demolition 25 years

UP civic polls 2017: BJP ahead in Lucknow, Kanpur; lathi-charge in Muzzafarnagar

BJP and Congress both got 874 votes in Ward no. 56 in Mathura. Winner will be decided by a lucky draw

 

UP Civic Polls 2017 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mayor candidates are leading in Meerut, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Pilibhit, Ghaziabad and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh local body polls.

Police have used lathi-charge to disperse a crowd gathered outside counting centre in Muzaffarnagar. Four people injured have been reported to be injured.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mayor candidate is leading by over 1000 votes in Moradabad, in the counting of Uttar Pradesh local body polls result that will be out on Friday.

BJP Lucknow candidate Sanyukta Bhatia, who seemed confident about the verdict, said, “I don’t consider anyone my competitor. I will be number one, no matter who is second or third.”

Counting of votes of all 652 Urban Local Bodies is being done today, at 334 centers in the state. Polling was held in three phases on November 22, 26 and 29. It will start at 8 am and results are expected by evening.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made at counting centres. Central Para Military Forces have been deployed in and around the centres.

CCTV cameras have been set up for close monitoring and arrangements made for webcasting of the counting process. No procession is allowed during the counting and following the announcement of results.

Click to Read → UP Civic Polls Results Live